6/14/12

How Does A Prospect Not Get Drafted? – Mack Ade


This happens a lot at the high school senior level.

A player I know well…and we’ll keep the name out this post; thank you… was recently projected by many of the draft pundits to be a guaranteed second day draft pick. Some even had him in the sup-1 round on Day One.

He had had a number of ‘private tryout’ and went into draft day confident he would be picked.

Various team representatives called him and asked if he would take under-slot money if they picked him in either the sup-1 or second round. The player said no, and the draft went on.

What the player probably didn’t realize at the time that these were the only teams that had him on their board, or other teams didn’t scout him figuring he’d be gone early.

There was no reason for the teams (that had called him) to call him again. They probably went on with an alternative pick at that slot, someone who would take around $100,000 to sign and play professional baseball.

The draft continued and then, the draft ended. 40 rounds and no sound of his name being called out. All his prospect fans were on Twitter telling the world where they were going. This player had only one place to go. Asleep.

This happens a lot and those of you going into your senior year in high school that play (and are reading this) need to make a hard copy of this and scotch tape it above your desk. Your time will come and you too may have to make this decision.

If four teams call you and set up tryouts, then there are four teams interested in you. That doesn’t mean 25 more want you and didn’t call. Trust me, even David Dahl, Courtney Hawkins, and Lucas Giolito didn’t have 30 clubs call them.

Know your monetary value on draft day and evaluate it against a free ride at a D1 school. If you sign, you’re going to be paid bad money for at least 4-5 years, but the signing money, if sizable, can influence whether or not you should go to college (I believe every one of you should).

Perception is everything here. P Chris Beck of Georgia Southern had a very disappointing season, but, trust me, he now has 600,000 reasons to be happy he pitched college for three years.

But, what about our unnamed player here?

Oh, he’s fine. He’s got a free ride at a major D1 school and will go through this again in a few years. He’s still bummed, but he’ll come to realize that this was the best thing for him. Every ballplayer is one injury away from owning their own business, being a doctor someday, or working in Wal-Mart.

2 comments:

Shankbone said...

Mack -

Good take on this. I'm impressed with all the HS kids the Mets drafted. The Giants did not take this path, and it has some of us incensed, because its most likely about ownership cheaping out. Now they didn't have a lot of moneys in their budget this year with the CBA cap, but they could have grabbed some 100-125K HS talent in the 10-25 rounds, where the Mets, Yankees and Padres to name a few, went crazy.

The million dollar babies are pretty clear, but there is another tier of talent that doesn't really want to go to school, they want to be ballplayers, and get paid a bit.

Mack Ade said...

Yeah, this a great kid that really screwed up. The good news is he's sophomore eligible and has to only spend two years not getting injured.